Known in the art are cartons for packaging various consumer products. Such cartons are made substantially of a paperboard material, and often include separate components which are movable with respect to one another. For example, known in the art are drug dispensing cartons or the like, where an sleeve houses an inner sliding member, and the consumer product, i.e. tablets, capsules, etc., are packaged in the inner sliding member. In order to access the drug units, a consumer slides the sliding member out of the sleeve. The sliding member may be provided in the form of a paperboard card or drawer. The same sliding member or another sliding member may provide information (instructions, disclaimers, etc.) concerning the product, for example an information card or a small booklet which is slidably engaged with the sleeve of the packaging.
Moreover, conventional packaging materials, such as for packaging unit dose pharmaceuticals, lack high tear-resistance and burst-resistance, which are desirable characteristics for various packaging applications including pharmaceutical packaging. Child resistance is a feature particularly desirable for unit dose pharmaceutical packaging to ensure that the package has sufficient integrity against tampering by children.
Moreover, it is commonly known that packaging for pharmaceutical products must be accessible by a person using the medication, but also child-resistant. This presents a number of drawbacks, particularly when the recipient of the medication is lacking manual dexterity or strength.
There is thus a need for an improved package and packaging material for providing improved tolerance in packages.
Known in the art are various paperboard materials, including various tear-resistant paperboard materials, for manufacturing such packaging products. A conventional packaging is made of a tear-resistant paperboard laminate comprising a paperboard layer which is bonded to a tear-resistant polymer film such as polyethylene, polyester, or the like. The paperboard is clay coated, on the exposed side, for printability. Thus the resulting laminate has a clay coated paperboard side and a film side. The film side of the laminate has an adhesive quality, in that it has a “sticky” effect when in contact with another component. This texture is undesirable, namely in packaging such as the ones described above, where an inner sliding component (or “insert”) is provided. Indeed, the stickiness of the film hinders the sliding motion of the insert, or of other movable parts in the packaging. Moreover, only the paperboard side of the laminate is printable. Therefore, if print is desired to appear on two sides of a substantially flat component of the packaging, the laminate material must be folded, which is results in a bulkier component and requires more of the laminate material. Moreover, the film side is not readily adherable. Therefore special adhesive substances and/or processes are required to adhere a component to the film side of the packaging, which results in increased manufacturing costs, etc. Furthermore, such conventional packaging material will tend to warp under certain conditions, such as high levels of humidity, etc., due to the asymmetry of the composition. This warping effect challenges the manufacturing of packages made with such materials and/or results in undesirable deformations in the final packages.
Moreover, despite advances in multi-layer film technology, the use of such films as the strength layer in a laminated structure with paperboard is still characterized by relatively poor tear characteristics. A conventional tear-resistant material has tear strength as measured by the Elmendorf tear propagation test of approximately 350 grams of force in machine direction and 400 grams of force in cross direction. The poor tear characteristics of the paperboard are imparted to the cross-laminated layers and the tear propagates through each of the layers.
Also, in fabricating products, the dissimilar materials of such laminates can present a number of problems including poor adhesion of the film to the paperboard surface, which can result in delaminating and other undesirable characteristics in the finished laminated product.
Accordingly, there is a need for a highly tear-resistant laminate with improved durability.
Hence, in light of the aforementioned, there is a need for an improved system which, by virtue of its design and components, would be able to overcome some of the above-discussed prior art concerns.